Marin County didn’t stay green by accident; it did so because a generation of fierce activists fought corporate developers. We honor fragments of that revolution across our landscape—from Muir Woods to Mt. Livermore to Peter Behr Drive. Yet, walk through the center of Mill Valley today, and a vital piece of our environmental soul is missing. There is nothing to permanently honor two of the greatest local conservationists who lived among us: Huey Johnson and Phyllis Faber.
To the global environmental movement, they were legends. To me, during my 50 years as a Marin resident, activist and journalist, they were mentors.
Phyllis Faber, a pioneering botanist, helped create the 1972 California Coastal Act and co-founded the Marin Agricultural Land Trust in 1980 with rancher Ellen Straus. By bridging the bitter divide between environmentalists and ranchers, Faber’s vision saved more than 55,000 acres of West Marin farmland from urban sprawl.
Huey Johnson, a brilliant strategist, in the 1960s led the grassroots resistance that defeated “Marincello”—a massive proposed city of 30,000 people in the Marin Headlands—laying the groundwork for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He went on to found the Trust for Public Land and serve as California’s secretary of resources.
Both Faber and Johnson raised families and did their life’s work in Mill Valley, yet their names are sadly absent. We can change this with a simple, poetic act of urban forestry.
Just east of the Depot Plaza amidst Miller Avenue sits a modest, county-owned patch of green grass. With community vision, this municipal passing space could become a pocket redwood grove dedicated to Johnson and Faber. Redwoods are the ultimate symbol of their legacy: Their root systems interconnect to hold the earth together, much like the community coalitions these two leaders spent their lives building.
Please email Mill Valley Mayor Max Perry, the City Council and Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters. Tell them you support allocating this Miller Avenue green patch for a commemorative redwood grove. Time to bring the spirit of these heroic titans who protected this place home to the heart of Mill Valley by planting literal giants where they lived.
David Kupfer is an environmental journalist, educator, consultant, and organic grower and advocate.
